Ford and GM Small Displacement Direct Injection Turbo Engines

GM just announced that, like Ford, it will introduce some small displacement, direct injection turbos, to help comply with the new CAFE mileage standards. According to the announcement, GM will offer a 1.4 liter four cylinder version of this type of engine in the Cobalt next year.

Ford will call its new engines EcoBoost. They'll cost $300-$400 more than conventional, normally aspirated engines, which is a lot smaller premium than diesels and hybrids. Ford estimates the pay back, through fuel savings, will be about 3-4 years, on average. That's a shorter time than the pay back period for diesels and hybrids. It's expected that there will be no performance penalty.

Do you think consumers will go for these new, smaller engines? Would you buy a car that's equipped with one?

Comments

It all depends on the performance of the turbo and the fuel economy. If you're talking 2-3 mpg, then no cause I can get a Civic, Versa, mazda 3 (2.0L), Sentra, Elantra with better gas mileage. If you are talking 5-7 mpg, then you have my interest. Although the new Focus' interior is much improved over the last model.

do you have a link to the article? maybe they mention the fuel economy in the article.

The other issue is HP and torque. The NA 1.4 puts out only 90HP ... if the turbo version put out 120-140HP and improves fuel economy by the 5-7 MPG as stated in an earlier post, then I believe that both GM and Ford will benefit from using this engine in a variety of vehicles.

If the answer is "Yes", then any improvement in MPG could be offset by the increased fuel price.

When we were looking for a small SUV a few years ago for my wife, we test drove and loved the Subaru Outback 2.5XT. As soon as I mentioned that it required premium fuel, the wife crossed it off her list.

Daughter feels the same way about the Mini Cooper - even the NA version requires premium.

All those with these new DI engines should have their favorite mechanic keep tabs on how much carbon builds up on the intake valves.DI engines have had this problem for several years, with the euro engines possibly having the most buildup.I learned this from various forums as well as info provided by a leading oil specialist researching cleaning methods (sorry, I can't say any more about the latter).

Who cares? Let's assume that the price difference between regular and premium is 25 cents. If you own a car that gets 25 mpg and you drive it 15,000 miles annually the price differential works out to the huge sum of I hope you are sitting down$150 per yearThat's a whopping $12.50 per month, or 41 cents per day.Big deal...

Good review of the new Buick Regal CXL Turbo engine in this Wall St. Journal story, but most of the info may be registration only.

"The engine&#151;intercooled, direct injection, 16-valve&#151;is punchy, eager, with ample low-end torque (258 pound-feet at 2,000 rpm) and the kind of seamless flexibility across the rev range you'd have expected from larger, naturally aspirated engines. You can thank the clever engine-management software, and variable valve timing, for that.

And the car is quick. If you stand on the gas, the Regal Turbo will chirp and wiggle its way to 60 mph in about 7 seconds, quite respectable for a car weighing nearly 3,800 pounds. At highway speeds it has surprising reserves of orneriness. "

Good article, Steve, but it contains a mistake; the Hyundai Sonata turbo displaces 2.0 liters, not 2.4, which is the displacement of the naturally aspirated Sonata. The Sonata turbo generates significantly more horsepower and torque than the Regal Turbo (274 vs. 220 and 269 vs. 258, respectively), while delivering better fuel economy. The Sonata also beats the Regal on price. All this doesn't necessarily mean that the Sonata is the better car, since the Regal may have some compensating attributes, such as refinement, over the Sonata. We'll soon find out, since I imagine there will be a comparison before too long.

"Here's another remarkable fact about our scarlet nubbin: one liter, as in, one tiny, spectacularly optimized liter of displacement across a three-cylinder turbocharged engine, what Ford calls its EcoBoost technology. A $995 option on the Fiesta SFE model, the 1.0-liter EcoBoost helps the 2014 Fiesta claim the title of most fuel-efficient nonhybrid sold in North America, with an EPA-estimated highway mileage of 45 mpg.

But this engine is Godzilla in a shoebox:

Ford says this 1.0-liter is the most power-dense engine it has ever made. Super-small, in other words. The cast-iron block can fit on an 8½-x-11 piece of paper."